WOODLAND — Which is better to hear: 17 team steals or 39 points allowed?
For Kayla Fredricks, the lone senior on Woodland’s red-hot girls basketball team, it was tough to pick.
“I like hearing both,” she said.
The Beavers’ defense has been their bread-and-butter all season, and a big reason why they’ve won five of their past six games, including Friday’s 49-39 victory over Columbia River to move into sole possession of third place in the 2A Greater St. Helens League.
The Chieftains, meanwhile, drop into fourth-place.
Woodland got the league’s attention last week when it handed first-place Washougal its first league loss on the Panthers’ home floor.
And like it did Friday, it might not be fancy, but it works. And it starts with the up-tempo full-court trap to force turnovers into easy transition points.
Fredricks said the team’s growth is coming at the right time.
“We’re playing well together,” said Fredricks, who had seven of her team’s steals, along with six points and six rebounds. “Our defense has made us the team we are now.”
That team now is 6-3 in league play with three regular-season games remaining to try to improve its playoff positioning.
Payten Foster had 12 points to lead the Beavers –what coach Glen Flanagan called a “typical night with just one double-digit scorer” — and seven rebounds.
Flanagan, though, shuffled his starting lineup last minute when he learned early in the afternoon starting guard Audrey Adams wasn’t available because of a school jazz band competition.
Yet Adams arrived to begin the third quarter when Woodland (11-6, 6-3 league) already had a 28-13 halftime lead after holding the Chieftains (9-8, 5-4) to without a field goal for nearly 10 first-half minutes.
Adams finished with seven points, and her 3-point play with 2 minutes, 45 seconds to play in the fourth gave the Beavers some breathing room at 47-34 when River cut the Woodland lead to 10 — its closest since the first quarter.
Emma Fisk had 12 points for River and Kate Kraft and Ellie Furth had 11 apiece.
Ninth grader Jordan Ryan (ankle), who had 15 points over three quarters in the teams’ first meeting Jan. 6 (a 47-34 River victory) did not play.
